What are the odds your YouTube video will make it?

What are the odds your YouTube video will make it?

YouTube now has 1 billion unique users every month, what are the odds your video will make it?

Here’s a little animation about your odds:

YouTube Statistics

The population of the world is 7 Billion and amazingly only 2.4 billion have access to the internet.

So consider this. 2.4 billion people use the internet and out of them, 1 billion of them use YouTube on a monthly basis.

Even more astonishing is that approximately 1.6 billion people are banned from watching YouTube in their country. Mostly because of religion or politics. That’s almost half of the people using the internet!

YouTube now gets a whopping 4 billion views per day.

So, just what are the chances of your video getting some of this action?

Well to start with, 72 hours of footage are uploaded every minute and with the average YouTube video being 4 minutes and 12 seconds that means…

…when you upload your film, you’re competing with over 1.4 million other videos also being uploaded on any given day. And that isn’t even counting the films already on YouTube.

There’s actually more of a chance of Obama becoming a dictator than your video getting more than 500 views on YouTube (According to Erik Rush anyway)!

In fact, you have more of a chance of:

Getting Shot

Dating a Millionaire

Or being flown by a drunken pilot

…than getting 10,000 views for your video.

If you want 100,000 views there are higher odds that you’ll:

Get injured by a toilet

Guess someone’s pin before the card is swallowed

Or be considered possessed by Satan

And you are more likely to die by falling out of bed than get to 1 million hits.

So what’s the point in even trying to get your video seen by the masses?

For business, it is mostly exposure. In the hope that their video will get seen.

Chuck Testa received over 13.5 million views when his taxidermy advert went viral creating a huge buzz around his business.

For some, it is about money. The money you can earn monetising your video.

It’s alleged that “Charlie Bit My Finger” made the family more than £100,000 and YouTube comedy star Shane Dawson reportedly makes $200,000 per year.

Let us not forget Justin Bieber was discovered on YouTube after his mother uploaded a film of him singing to show her family and friends. Justin Bieber is now worth a reported $110 Million.

But for most, it is simply about being social. Getting your brand or personal video out there for the world to see – or not see as is the case for most.

Tips to help get your video seen

There is one big however here though. YouTube is not a lottery. Whilst it is true you cannot create a ‘viral’ and don’t believe anyone who says they can, there are some basics that will help you to get your video seen.

Do some keyword research and see what subjects people are searching for and interested in

Have a look on YouTube and note which types of videos perform best and why

When you upload your film, use the keyword research you did to write a compelling title and description and utilise the meta tags section

Get your video out there on social networks

Use YouTube’s advertising platform to get your video in front of the right audience – you can be very targeted. This will help boost views and visibility for your video initially

Then check back and see what your audience retention is. If people are watching it until the end and you’ve done all the above, you are in with a good chance of beating the odds.

If you want some specific advice on these points, have a look at our ‘how to’ section on our blog page.